Motor-driven or operated locks, and the like



Nov. 17, 1964 F. T. WOLZ 3,157,042

MOTOR-DRIVEN 0R OPERATED LOCKS, AND THE LIKE Filed March 29, 1963 lnvqn'ror: FrunclsIwolz,

United States Patent 3,157,042 MOTOR-DRIVEN GR OPERATED LOCKS, AND THE LIKE Francis T. Wolz, Joliet, Ill., assignor to Folger Adam, Juliet, 111., a co-pafinership of Juliet, Ill. Filed Mar. 29, 1963, Ser. No. 269,099 6 Claims. (Cl. 70-279) This invention relates to improvements in motor-driven or operated locks, and the like. Specifically, the improvements herein disclosed are usefully applied to locks of size and strength needed in the secure locking of such doors as those used at various locations of prisons and other confinement enclosures. Also, the improvements herein disclosed are useful especially in the locking of swinging or hinged doors; but it will appear that such improvements are not limited in their usefulness to such swinging type doors, but may also be used in connection with sliding and similar doors.

The locks to which these improvements relate are thus usable in connection with confinement doors, and must be-rather heavily and very strongly built. Accordingly, it is desirable to make provision for motor drive of the locking bolts of such locks; together with suitable provision for control of the motor operations, both at starting and at stopping the motor drive in proper phase with the position of the lock bolt.

It is also desirable to make provision for manual key operation of the lock bolts, without interference produced by the motor drive mechanism, so that on occasion the lock bolts may be retracted to their unlocked positions manually and without need of simultaneously driving the lock operating motor which will then remain stationary during such manual operations. The presently disclosed locks include provisions for meeting all of the foregoing requirements in simple manner, and by use of simple mechanisms.

A further object of the invention relates to the provision of a simple and dependable form of one-cycle operation to ensure normal completion of a single full cycle of operation, instituted by the operation of a starting button for a small interval of time. This arrangement is, however such that repeated operations of the starting button will produce corresponding repeated operations of the one-cycling unit but without change of the originally set position of the lock bolt. In this connection the herein disclosed arrangement is one in which such lock bolt is constantly urged into the projected or locking position by spring means so that upon closing of the door such bolt will be self-locking. Then the motor driven unit, when operated serves to withdraw such bolt to its unlocking position in which position it is then retained until released by operation of a releasing elements engagement with the door casing slightly before the door becomes fully closed. The arrangement is such that when the bolt has been drawn by the motor driven one-cycle operation to the bolt un-locked position, such bolt will then be retained in such un-locked position until the door closely approaches its fully closed position. Repeated operations of the one-cycle unit prior to release of the bolt by the door closing operation will then produce no further bolt operation, leaving it in its un-locked position until the door is finally closed.

It is here noted that the provision of a motor driven shaft unit for rock of the bell-crank by which the bolt is withdrawn to its un-locked position presents advantages as compared to a solenoid operation for producing such bolt un-locking operation. These advantages include the fact that the rock of the bell-crank during the un-locking operation is produced by a movement which approximates a sinusoidal form of change of speed to a maximum, followed by a return movement which also 3,157,042 Patented Nov. 17, 1964 ice approximates a sinusoidal form of reduction of speed to stoppage at completion of the complete cycle. Correspondingly, the pull which may be produced for start of bell-crank operation may be large without need of using a large motor producing a large starting torque. Then, as the rocking movement of the bell-crank advances the pull exerted by the motor torque will be sufiicient to carry the bell-crank to its final rocked position, with corresponding sufiicient pull on the bell-crank, but without need of production high torque by the motor. Thus, such motor driven arrangement presents the advantage that sufficient pulling force may be developed to start the bolt retraction against the force of its urging spring, with provision of a comparatively small operating motor, occupying a small space within the lock housing.

To enable alternate bolt retracting operation manually by use of a key lock, a lost-motion connection is provided between the motor driven link and the bell-crank which retracts the locking bolt. Such lost-motion connection is such that when motor driven operation is produced the bell-crank is rocked by the connecting link; whereas, when key un-locking is to be performed the bell-crank is rocked by the key operation, but without need of driving the motor or shifting the link endwise.

Other objects and uses of the invention will appear from a detailed description of the same, which consists in the features of construction and combinations of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 shows a face view of the lock unit with the front plate removed to show the operational elements; such elements being shown in their bolt projected position (locking position), and with the motor driven one cycle unit at its normal or home position, preparatory to commencement of a subsequent un-locking operation;

FIGURE 2 shows a vertical cross-section taken on the lines 2-2 of FIGURES 1 and 3, looking in the directions of the arrows;

FIGURE 3 shows a horizontal cross-section taken on the lines 3-3 of FIGURES 1 and 2, looking in the directions of the arrows; it being noted that the cover plate is shown in position in both of FIGURES 2 and 3; and

FIGURE 4 shows a simple form of circuitry for producing the one-cycling operation with starting of such operation by depression of a simple starting button.

In the drawing the lock unit is housed in a housing it), having a removable cover plate 11. The lock bolt 12 is mounted for reciprocation back and forth through a sufficient opening in the right-hand side of the housing. The outer end of such bolt is of conventional bevelled form for latching engagement with the stationary plate carried by the door frame, in well understood manner. Thus such bolt may engage with and lock with the element of the door frame as the door is closed, the bevelled end of the bolt causing the bolt to be shifted lettwardly during the latching operation, in conventional manner. The spring 13 is provided for urging the bolt rightwardly until stopped by engagement of the bolt carried flange 14 with the inner face of the wall of the housing.

A bell-crank unit 15 is pivotally mounted to the back wall of the housing at the stud 16. Such bell crank includes the downwardly extending finger 17 which lies just to the right of the stud 18 which projects rearwardly from the bolt 12, so that when the bell-crank is rocked in clockwise direction (viewed as in FIGURE 1), the bolt will be retracted into its un-locking position. Such bell-crank also includes the leftwardly extending finger 19 at substantially right-angles to the finger 17. A pad 20 is also provided at the upper portion of such bellcrank and substantially in line with the finger 17. By depressing such pad or by raising the left-hand end of the finger 3.9 the bell-crank will be rocked clockwise to produce the leftward movement of the bolt for the tin-locking operation. If needed, a spring 21 may be provided, urging counterclockwise rock of the bell-crank to its normal or bolt releasing position, thus allowing the bolt to be driven rightwardly into its locking position, by the spring 13. Accordingly, when the bell-crank is permitted to rock to its rightward or normal position (illustrated in FIG- URE l), the pad is in raised position, and the bellcrank finger 19 is in its lowered position.

A bolt latching arm 22 is pivoted to the rear wall of the housing by the stud 23. Such arm occupies a position just beneath the bolt 12. A spring 24 urges such arm to rock counterclockwise to raise its right-hand end towards the lower edge of the bolt. This arm 22 is provided on its upper edge with the notch or recess 25. The lower end 26 of the bell-crank finger 17 will cause the arm 22 to rock downwardly as the bolt is retracted lef wardly, until such finger snaps into such notch, thus restraining the bolt from rightward movement towards its locking position. A roller bolt 27 is mounted in the lower portion of the housing for back and forth sliding movement. This roller bolt extends rightwardly through the right-hand wall of the housing, and its outer end is provided with the roller 28. The spring 29 urges such roller bolt rightwardly until restrained by the nut 36 carried by the left-hand end of such roller bolt, which nut will engage the face of an angle bar element 31 secured within the housing. Such roller bolt is thus normally projected to a position rightward of that shown in FIGURE 1, when the swinging door is opened; but as such door moves close to its closed position it will engage with the roller 28, thus forcing the roller bolt leftwardly against the spring 29. Then as long as the door remains closed such roller bolt will be retained in such leftward position. Upon slightly opening the door the roller bolt will be disengaged and the spring 29 will then project such bolt rightwardly until limited by engagement of the nut 30 with the angle-bar 31.

This roller bolt is provided with a flattened surface 32 which will be engaged by a roller 33 journalled on the leftward end portion of the latching arm 22, thus limiting the upswing of the right-hand end portion of such latching arm 22, but allowing sufficient upswing to permit the lower end 26 of the finger 17 to engage the notch or recess as previously explained herein. The extreme lefthand end of the roller bolt is also provided with a raised cam portion 34 which will engage such roller 33 as the roller bolt is fully extended rightwardly upon opening the door. Such extreme rightward movement of the roller bolt thus causes such cam portion 34 to tilt the latching arm 22 clockwise, thus disengaging its notch or recess 25 from the lower end portion 26 of the finger 17, and allowing the lock bolt to be fully projected rightwardly by its spring 13, preparatory to the succeeding door closing and latching operation. As the door is brought to its position close to final closing it will engage the bevelled portion of the lock bolt 12, thus ensuring final door locking by such bolt when the door is finally completely closed.

The key lock unit 35 is mounted in the upper righthand portion of the housing. This unit is provided with the conventional key receiving slotted opening 36; and when the proper key is inserted therethrough and turned, the stud 37 will be projected downwardly against the pad 2'0 of the bell-crank, thus producing retraction of the lock bolt manually by key operation.

The foregoing described elements enable manual key operation for the unlocking function. I have also herein disclosed means to enable motor driven retraction of the locking bolt, as follows:

In the upper portion of the casing and alongside of the key operated unit 35 I have mounted a small motor-gear 4: reducer unit 33, the slow-speed output shaft 39 of which unit is conveniently brought to a location close to the front cover of the housing 10. In the illustrated embodiment, such motor-gear-reducer unit is of dimension front to rear such that it is necessary to form the housing 10 with a rearwardly extending socket or recess 49 to accomodate the motor element. Such motor-gear-reducer unit is conveniently mounted on an L-shaped bracket 41 having the leg 42 which is secured to the left-hand side wall of the housing 10; and the output shaft 39 is extended through an opening formed in such bracket. To the front portion of such shaft, and in front of the bracket, a cam block 4-3 is mounted, a set screw 44 being extended radially through the cam block and into engagement with a flattened surface of the shaft, to ensure drive of the cam block in conventional manner. Such cam block serves as an element of a one-cycle unit, presently to be described.

Such cam block also has secured to its front surface a forwardly projecting stud. A lost-motion link element 46 has its upper end journalled on such stud 4-5, and its lower portion is provided with a longitudinally extending slot 47. A stud 48 projects forwardly from the lefthand end portion of the bell-crank arm 19 and through such slot as shown in FIGURE 1. The normal or home position of the cam block is that shown in FIGURE 1 wherein the link and its slot are aligned with the stud 45 and the shaft 39. When thus aligned the slot is long enough and so located in the link that the stud 48 on the bell-crank arm is just free of the lower end of the slot. Also, due to the length of the slot it is possible for the bell-crank to execute its full rocking movement (under key manual operation) without need of any upward movement of the cam block, thus permitting unimpeded manual key operation when desired, and without need of producing any corresponding rotational movement of the cam block. On the other hand, such parts are so proportioned that by motor drive the rising movement of the link, during approximately the first half-rotation of the cam block, will he sulficient to engage the lower end of the slot with the stud 43, and then raise such stud high enough to rock the bell-crank its needed rock to retract the lock bolt 12 into its unlocked position. In such position such lock bolt will be latched by the engagement of the finger 26 on the lower end of the bell-crank arm 17, with the notch 25 of the arm 22. This will temporarily hold the lock bolt in its unlocked position so that the door may be started in its opening direction. During these operations the roller bolt 27 is retained in its leftward position (shown in FIGURE 1) by engagement of the door edge with the roller 28; but as soon as the door has been swung further open its front edge will disengage from such roller 28, permitting rightward shift of the roller bolt far enough under urge of its spring 29, to bring the cam surface 34 into engagement with the roller 33 of the arm 22, thus disengaging the notch 25 from the finger 26, and allowing projection of the lock bolt rightwardly into its snap-lock position (shown in FIGURE 1). During such just described operations, and after the cam block 43 has performed its half rotation, the link 46 will be permitted to lower to its lowermost position, corresponding to completion of a one-cycle operation of the motor driven cam block. Such lowering of the link will be synchronous with the completion of the second half rotation of the shaft 39 to the home or stopping position of the one-cycle movement.

It should also be noted that usually the interval for completion of the one-cycle operation will be such that the link is fully lowered at or about the time when the lock bolt is released for its projection rightwardly into its snap lock position shown in FIGURE 1. In any case the length of the slot 47 of the link is sufficient to accommodate the full vertical movement of the stud 43 on the lefthand end of the bell-crank arm 19, so that, if the bellcrank should be retained in its fully rocked position (clockwise), and with the stud 43 in its fully raised position, the cam block could nevertheless complete its full rotation (one-cycle movement) without improper engagement of the upper end of the slot 47 with such stud 48.

A small switch such as a microswitch 49 is mounted on the bracket 41 adjacent to a home position of the cam block. In FIGURE 1 such cam block is provided with a flattened portion 50, which flattened portion comes opposite to the microswitch when the cam block is at its home position. This flattened portion is deep enough (radially of the cam block) to allow the microswitch to be close enough to the axis of rotation, to ensure that, shortly after commencement of cam rotation (at the beginning of a cycle of operations), the full radius perimeter of the cam block will come against the light leaf spring 51 and force it upwardly to thus actuate the stud 52 of the microswitch. This operation will reverse the contacts of the microswitch and hold them reversed until the cam block has completed its full one-cycle movement, carrying the flattened portion 50 around far enough to release the leaf 51 and permit the stud 52 to be projected outwardly to its normal position, with corresponding return of the spring contacts within the microswitch to their normal or biased condition.

In FIGURE 4 I have shown schematically, a simple form of circuitry for producing the one-cycle operation, with the units just described. In this case the current supply terminals are shown at 53 and 54, the motor is shown at 55, and the two terminals of the microswitch are shown at 56 and 57. The hand-operated starting button is shown at 53. This starting button switch is connected into the line 59 which comprises one of the motor current supply lines, by the lead 60; and the contacts 56 and 5% of the microswitch are bridged across such starting switch by the leads 61 and 62. Accordingly, when the starting button switch is depressed and retained in depressed condition for a short interval, the motor drive will commence to rotate the cam block, so that when the starting button is released the microswitch contacts will have been engaged together, to continue supply of current to the motor until completion of the cycle. At that instant the flat surface of the cam block will have come to position where the spring leaf 51 is released to allow the microswitch contacts to become disengaged, with corresponding opening of the current supply to the motor.

Examination of FIGURE 1 shows that the cam block rotates counterclockwise. Accordingly, in the showing of that figure, and during the first portion of the cam rotation, the link 46 is swung rightwardly and drawn upwardly. During this phase of the cycle the pull exerted by the link on the stud 48 is at substantially right-angles to the torque arm of the arm 19 of the bell-crank. Thus such pull is developed under the most advantageous conditions for delivery of a high torque to the bell-crank, and thus to the lock bolt. Thereafter, as the second quadrant of the cam block rotation occurs, the upper end of such link is moving leftwardly until finally the high point of the link is reached. Thus the forces needed to draw the lock bolt leftwardly to the fully unlocked position, are most efficiently transmitted from the motor to such lock bolt, with corresponding good operation with a mini mum size of the motor-gear reducer unit.

I claim:

1. In a locking device, the combination of a lock element movable between a locking position and an unlocking position, spring means in connection with said lock element urging movement of the lock element in the locking direction, a movable lock element actuator havinga part in driving engagement with the lock element, means to mount said lock element actuator for movement between a first lock element locked position and a second lock element unlocked position, a manual key operated unit having a key operated actuating pin in position to engage the lock element actuator for movement of said actuator towards the second lock element unlocked position, a motor unit having an output shaft, a crank pin in operative connection with said output shaft and having a starting position, and a link connection between the crank pin and the lock element actuator, said link connection including a lost motion connection constituted to permit full movement of the lock element actuator in the lock element unlocking direction without rotary movement of the motor output shaft when the crank pin is in the starting position, and constituted to cause movement of the lock element actuator in the lock element unlocking direction when the motor and output shaft are rotated with movement of the crank pin and the link from the starting position.

2. A locking device as defined in claim 1, wherein the lost motion connection is between the link and the lock element actuator.

3. A locking device as defined in claim 2, wherein the lost motion connection includes a longitudinally extending slot in the link and a stud connected to the lock element actuator and extending into said slot.

4. A locking device as defined in claim 1, together with a one-cycle unit including a cam block connected to the motor unit output shaft, a switching element mounted in operative proximity to the cam block, said switching element and cam block being constituted for actuation of the switching element to closed circuit position after commencement of rotation of the output shaft and cam block and for actuation of the switching element to open circuit position prior to completion of the one-cycle operation, current supply connections for the motor, said connections including the switching element aforesaid, and a manually operable switching element in parallel connection with said first mentioned switching element.

5. A locking device as defined in claim 4, wherein the first mentioned switching element comprises a microswitch.

6. A locking device as defined in claim 1, together with means to latch the lock bar in the unlocking position, and releasing means to make inoperative said lock bar latching means, said releasing means comprising an element movable between a door closed position and a door opened position, and spring means urging movement of said releasing means to the lock bar latching means inoperative position when the door is in opened position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,062,084 Desbecker May 20, 1913 

1. IN A LOCKING DEVICE, THE COMBINATION OF A LOCK ELEMENT MOVABLE BETWEEN A LOCKING POSITION AND AN UNLOCKING POSITION, SPRING MEANS IN CONNECTION WITH SAID LOCK ELEMENT URGING MOVEMENT OF THE LOCK ELEMENT IN THE LOCKING DIRECTION, A MOVABLE LOCK ELEMENT ACTUATOR HAVING A PART IN DRIVING ENGAGEMENT WITH THE LOCK ELEMENT, MEANS TO MOUNT SAID LOCK ELEMENT ACTUATOR FOR MOVEMENT BETWEEN A FIRST LOCK ELEMENT LOCKED POSITION AND A SECOND LOCK ELEMENT UNLOCKED POSITION, A MANUAL KEY OPERATED UNIT HAVING A KEY OPERATED ACTUATING PIN IN POSITION TO ENGAGE THE LOCK ELEMENT ACTUATOR FOR MOVEMENT OF SAID ACTUATOR TOWARDS THE SECOND LOCK ELEMENT UNLOCKED POSITION, A MOTOR UNIT HAVING AN OUTPUT SHAFT, A CRANK PIN IN OPERATIVE CONNECTION WITH SAID OUTPUT SHAFT AND HAVING A STARTING POSITION, AND A LINK CONNECTION BETWEEN THE CRANK PIN AND THE LOCK ELEMENT ACTUATOR, SAID LINK CONNECTION INCLUDING A LOST MOTION CONNECTION CONSTITUTED TO PERMIT FULL MOVEMENT OF THE LOCK ELEMENT ACTUATOR IN THE LOCK ELEMENT UNLOCKING DIRECTION WITHOUT ROTARY MOVEMENT OF THE MOTOR OUTPUT SHAFT WHEN THE CRANK PIN IS IN THE STARTING POSITION, AND CONSTITUTED TO CAUSE MOVEMENT OF THE LOCK ELEMENT ACTUATOR IN THE LOCK ELEMENT UNLOCKING DIRECTION WHEN THE MOTOR AND OUTPUT SHAFT ARE ROTATED WITH MOVEMENT OF THE CRANK PIN AND THE LINK FROM THE STARTING POSITION. 